Thursday, April 1, 2004

   Buttonmania

Whew, quite a few people seem to have been furiously working away at buttons while I was away. Again, some of them aren't showing up for me yet. So until they do, I can't add' em. Also, I've added three smaller variants of my button with different styles. Some of you may prefer to use those. I know Tony mentioned that he preferred that size, so I used it as a guide. Regarding sizes, it's important to remember one thing. I mentioned that on my page, I'd only accept buttons that are 100x35 pixels in size. But this may not apply to everyone else, necessarily. Although I do like the idea of using a particular standard (and we might as well stick with 100x35, now that everyone is working to that measurement), I do want to underline that you can make buttons of whatever size you choose. It's really up to you. It's just that, on my own page, I will only link to people who provide me with the size I want. So, this means that some of you may want to make buttons in a few sizes, to satisfy people who have different designs/styles on their own pages. Also, if buttonmania keeps taking off, it may be possible for us to add something into myOtaku v2 in this regard. I have some thoughts about how we can best apply the button system in myOtaku, but I haven't discussed it with Adam yet. Nevertheless, I'll talk to him and see what we can come up with. On another note, anyone who doesn't have a button but who would like one, is welcome to ask. I can't promise anything, but if I don't make it, I'm sure you can probably find another OB artist to do it for you.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004

   Playing With Lightning

For those who are interested, I've added two variants to my button, as you can see above. The blue version is looking a bit weird to me -- there's something wrong with the editing. But no matter. If you choose to link with the blue version, I can simply replace the file at a later date (thus changing the image on your own page, should you use it). I may just do totally different designs for each button (while still keeping that lovely fetus pod theme, of course). ~_^ On another note, I'm still wanting to add a few of you to my button collection. Sara, I'm looking at you. Your button doesn't seem to be working for me though. So, I haven't put up the link just yet. Also, Baron, the button thread on OB is a great idea. I might use that thread to look for people's buttons to put on my own page here. Whether or not people choose to link back is up to them. And for those who didn't know, the background image to these posts is the "fetus plant" that carries the clones, in the fields from The Matrix. It's kinda hard to see, but it's there if you take a closer look. Mostly, I just wanted a background that provided a bit of light/dark contrast. ^_^ Anyway, my project ended up going relatively well. Today was a weird day though. It just felt...different. We ended up starting on a program called "Peak 3", which allows you to edit/mix/create music. Our first project is to create three one-minute-long music pieces. This is really difficult, for two reasons. One, because the sound libraries at school are not only small, but they have a lot of irrelevant sounds. I mean, ten files of children laughing? To try to turn that into music is incredibly difficult. It took me the whole three hour lesson to develop a reasonable drum beat. It's that difficult, especially if you're virtually working from scratch. Still, I'm liking it. I have always wanted to really get involved in developing electronic music and it's fun to start actually learning how it all works. I have a massive CD here at home, full of hundreds of little sound samples (all music-related, too), which should be great for this type of work. Unfortunately, I don't have Peak 3 at home. And I can't get it burnt, because I don't use a Mac. Oh well. It's certainly not the best program out there. Sound Forge is better -- that's the one I'd like to own, I think. Anyway, I'll send this rambly post by calling everyone to get cracking on those myOtaku buttons. I think it's a nice creative project, with that community flavour to it. Yep. EDIT: Paper Mario 2 is being developed for GameCube. And Mario can apparently turn into a paper aeroplane and fly around! How utterly cool does that sound, eh? IGN says the game will still use the 2D characters on 3D backgrounds. Should be fantastic, when you think about the sharpness they can potentially achieve with sprites on the 'cube. The idea of really fluid 2D characters on gorgeous 3D backdrops has me drooling. ^_^ Now I must go back and play Paper Mario again...

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Tuesday, March 30, 2004

   The Jamesyfly Effect

I guess that my little "redevelopment" is pretty much complete. I changed the post background (as you've all seen) and I've edited a couple of things here. Most noteably, I now have a button for my page. If you want to use it, you are welcome to. And in return, I will link to your page from here. However, I do request that all buttons are 100x35, if you're making it yourself. I mean, it keeps things looking neat, afterall. ~_^ In Mimmi's case, I made a button for her. So if anyone's interested in that, I might give it a go. In other news...well, there really is no other news. I've just completed another school project. And I must say, it's one of the most boring projects I've ever done. My own work is really bland, too. And it's bland for a reason; I didn't find anything even remotely interesting about the job at hand. I had to do a half page newspaper ad (and a strip ad) for a shipping company. So I just called my fake company "Global Express", gave it an incredibly safe/obvious logo and created a very simple ad. It wasn't that I was going in thinking "I'm going to do crappy work", or something. It was just that if I'm not interested in something, I simply don't tend to do very well at it. Or at least, I physically can't put all of my creative energy into it. I think that's a huge weakness on my part. It makes things ten times more difficult, when I'm doing design on something that doesn't personally interest me in some way. Anyway, I'm just glad to have it done. After doing a lot of reading about how people view type on a page, I was influenced to reduce the width of my Otaku Life update column. I am actually wondering if the decreased width makes it easier to read the text. Usually if you create columns with a certain amount of width, people "pick up" each line of text more easily. There was nothing scientific to my adjustment on myOtaku though. It was mostly just an aesthetic thing. But I'm wondering if it really does make any difference, or if you haven't noticed at all. Also, in response to comments on my last post: Radaghast: No need to be sorry at all. Your first post (and especially your subsequent post) on my RE Outbreak entry was completely fine. Actually, it was great that you posted again and qualified your statement. That kind of effort is really appreciated. I never know what to say in comments and I rarely make large ones, so I appreciate it when people invest the time to comment on my page. Thanks. ^_^ Tonyboo: As you can see, I've linked to both of your pages. Why? Because they're cool. Thanks for linking to mine. *thumbs up* *says to everyone* If I haven't responded to a comment or something...well, that's why pencils have erasers, hun. o_O;;

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Monday, March 29, 2004

   Online vs Offline

Well, that last update didn't really come out as I wanted it to. I mean, from my end. But thanks to everyone who replied, you're all very cool for doing so. ^_^ I've been doing some reading on myOtaku sites and I came across Baron's page. He was referring to the whole online/offline thing. You know...how much of both "lives" overlap and stuff. This led me to thinking that I've never really written about it, on myOtaku. So I thought I would. Yesterday's chat really made me realize why I have developed a natural barrier between what happens on the 'net and what happens in my daily life. If you've read Mimmi's latest Otaku Life update, you'll have an idea about what was happening in the chat. I witnessed this. And at first, I took it with a grain of salt; these chats are always silly, right? So surely people aren't serious when they talk to people in a certain way? Obviously, there are cases where people are serious, though. And it actually makes me wonder why this is the case. The best example I can give about all of this would be related to my own experiences of running OtakuBoards and being involved in this network with Adam. During the v3 period in particular, I remember that if I ever made a change to the boards that someone didn't like, it wouldn't simply be a case of someone saying "I didn't like what you did with the boards, but it's your site". In many cases, I'd get people IMing me with a window full of abuse. This would be particularly true if a member had been banned; I would often grit my teeth during the process, because I knew that sooner or later, I'd get a nasty email or IM. I remember a couple of incidents in particular. One guy was banned from the site a few times, because he was swearing/abusing other members. He'd come on AIM under multiple names and flame me. At one point he called me a "fucking maggot", in all seriousness. A bit extreme, no? At first, I remember taking a lot of this stuff more seriously. And when you're in a position where you are seeing insults being thrown at you all the time, it does have an effect. It destroys any enjoyment that you can get out of the Internet. If it weren't for the few positive responses at the time, I'd probably have come very close to quitting entirely. I could definitely see why Adam never really wanted to get into confrontations with members; he keeps a level of distance, which works very well for him. It allows him to do his job in peace. As time went on, I realized that this was also the best option for me. And so, I simply started taking the Internet a whole lot less seriously in general. It's worked wonders, in terms of my level of enjoyment on here. It was just like switching off something in my brain, I guess. Now I find myself having a much better perspective on the way people react online. Of course, when your work is online for all to see, you're inevitably going to face some hard realities. With OtakuBoards 7, my own work was under a very fine microscope. And people who disliked it weren't afraid to tell me. Some people even refused to come back, because they thought it was so horribly awful. I could take that personally, but I don't. Actually, what I predicted ended up happening; most people warmed to it after a few days of use. Hopefully now it's second nature. I'm getting away from my point though. The point is, I define my "Internet life" differently from my "real life". So you might ask the question, if I take the Internet less seriously than real life, does this mean that I don't take my online friends seriously? The answer is really yes and no. I know a lot of people on the Internet. There's no question about that. My AIM buddy list is absolutely full; I physically can't add anyone else. And I still get people IMing me who aren't on my list. The thing is, I certainly wouldn't consider most of these people to be my friends. At least, not in the same way as a "real life friend". Most people on AIM know me because of my position here. And most of them want to talk to me for that reason. Most of them -- the vast majority -- really know very little about me at all. Even people I've known online for years still know very little about me. I would say that on the 'net, I only have a handful of people who I'd consider to be true friends -- people who I would genuinely miss a great deal if I ever somehow lost the 'net. Of course, there are people I miss having around, because at one point I was so used to seeing them on here. But I don't mourn their absence as I might with a "real friend". You know? Baron mentioned the desire to keep his online life seperate from his real life. I think I'm mostly the same, with some exceptions. I'm the same partly for the same reason as Baron. Even though I have a sense of distance between myself and the Internet, I am also very open to some people in certain specific ways. Probably more open than I'd be in person. So it's a funny mixture of elements. On the one hand I don't really have any desire to build these massive personal connections over the Internet. It's simply not very easy to do anyway. But by the same token, the Internet offers enough distance to be like a barrier -- it allows you to be more open and more frank at times, because the concerns that exist in person aren't present on the Internet. Would I actually meet people off the Internet? For the most part, it's doubtful. I can think of only one or two people that I'd really have any desire to physically meet. And even then, it'd probably be somewhat awkward for me. lol But still, it doesn't mean that I don't value the legitimate friendships that build up over the web. There are a lot of great people to talk to on here. There's a huge variety of opinion, a variety of personalities and a variety of individual talents. It's a really cool thing, I think. And there are definitely plenty of people who have had a very real impact on me, whether they know it or not. Anyway, that's my ramble for today. I have no idea how long this is as I type it; probably too long. lol But nobody has to read it. That's another beautiful thing about the Internet; sometimes people only exist if you pay attention. ~_^

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Sunday, March 28, 2004

   Resident Evil Outbreak

I was asking people in today's OB chat what I should write for my next myOtak update. And Domon mentioned Resident Evil Outbreak, which prompted me to consider the IGN review that I recently looked at. When I first heard about RE Outbreak, I was pretty excited. An online Resident Evil, where you choose to be a resident of Raccoon City...and you have to "survive" with up to seven other teammates? Could that be any more cool? I imagined a huge city, full of abandoned buildings, smashed up cars, dark alleyways and streets full of debris. I'd be running down the street all alone, hearing only my footsteps echoing on the road. I'd turn down a smaller street and come to a gas station -- its lights still glowing from inside. I'd walk in and find a little health, and maybe some ammunition. I'd also see someone laying in the corner, against the wall, struggling. Not a zombie, but another human player; they've been injured and they need my help. I'd walk over to them, grab them by the arm and lift 'em up. I'd use what herbs I had to heal them. And maybe, after introducing ourselves, we'd hear that kind of wet plodding sound -- you know how it goes. The sound of rotten feet dragging along the ground. And then, suddenly, shards of glass are thrown over us as zombies dive in through the windows, hungry for a feed. I've got the gun, he doesn't. He only has a lock pick. Now that he's fully healed, he can unlock the back door of the gas station, which leads to the darkened car park. Of course, it takes time. I have to hold the zombies off as long as I can. And just as they start grabbing at my clothing -- just as my ammunition starts running low -- he calls to me and tells me that the door's open. We run outside and hammer a couple of planks to the door, as we hear them on the other side, scraping at it and moaning hungrily. I'm sure that RE Outbreak has similar situations. And the fact that it's heavily structured with missions isn't so bad. It's more the fact that there are so many technical issues, and a lack of true freedom. IGN mentioned an online persistent world. I think that'd be amazing for Resident Evil; a world that you can enter at any time, a world that is completely chaotic, where you have to rely on the most basic items to survive. I haven't even played Outbreak, but I suspect that IGN was right in suggesting that it could have been so much more. In fact, when I think about the potential for an online Resident Evil...it's really potentially one of the most amazing games possible. The kind of experience it could deliver could be amazing. Anyway, my own descriptions here are pretty bad. But I have an excuse; it's really late and I'm tired. lol I'm also trying to test out this new post background, to see if it works properly. Bow down to the fetus pod. EDIT: Radaghast, the game is on PS2. As I mentioned, I'm not really concerned with the fact that it has specific outlined missions; I don't mind that at all. The fact that you can play through missions as a team is great. But also, it would be nice to have "broader" goals, which you can achieve by working in a non-linear way. Although this would probably only be possible if one were to use the PS2 HDD. Of course, games like FFXI have demonstrated what you can do with that peripheral...RE Outbreak could do the same, in terms of providing a persistent world. Regarding your suggestions...I'm not really interested in a zombie fest as such. That's not what my post is about. My post specifically relates to the Resident Evil franchise and how it could be played online. Doom III is a completely different type of game, so it doesn't really relate to my post at all. I'm focusing on how an RE game could play in an online atmosphere. I think the potential is amazing. ^_^ And again, please excuse me if there is anything poorly written in this post; it's late here, as some members will know, based on the chat. lol

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Wednesday, March 24, 2004

   Comments on Your Comments

Mimmi-chan: Yeah, the responses about the whole distraction thing have been incredibly interesting. There's a whole dynamic here that I'd never really considered before. Cool stuff. Oh and, I hope you feel better soon. Juu: Yeah, a Mario skin could fulfill my desire for billions of pretty colours. ^_^ As for ShineGet...it just didn't get the right time commitment from me. Actually, it already had a lot of content and it was ready to launch. But I canned it nonetheless. Shinji: Grand Theft Auto skin, eh? Noted. Baron: Thank you for the compliments, that's very kind of you. I think I will definitely include recommendations, if this RPG goes ahead. Lumi: I like your idea about seasons-related skins. Actually, it would definitely be great to make skins based on more generic themes (seasons, specific colours, moods, etc). Unfortunately, they take so long to produce that it's really tough to produce all the ideas that I have. But your idea is great and it's been noted. ^_^ Shinmaru-san: Yeah, a really slick metallic Metroid skin would be pretty funky, for sure. And it'd fulfill the desire of some to have a darker skin design. The lyrics thing is also noted. Tonykins: Lovely! I am really looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I'm sure they'll jazz up the boards significantly; your designs are always favourites of mine. DDG: Don't worry about a lack of ideas, it happens to me all the time. But if Mario and GTA are up your alley, that's good. ^_^ Kei-chan: Yep, you are exactly like me. Right now I'm listening to music with lyrics, but I'm concentrating okay. However, that's because I'm writing. If I were reading a story, it would be difficult. I like your genre idea, too. A testament to major anime genres would be fun, I think. Arcadia: Yeah, actually I would enjoy making a Kill Bill skin in particular. All that vivid yellow would really be awesome, in my opinion. Nice and piss-like. I'd make a SW skin, but I'm afraid of somehow doing it wrongly, so that the Star Wars fans hate me. lol And Matrix...I'd love to make a Matrix skin, but I don't think there are enough fans for it. Still, your ideas are duly noted. ^_^ Oh and, you can have that phrase if you like. It's my gift to you. Debbie: Good show, ol' bean...about the headphones, that is. Another Zelda skin? Actually, it would be fun to do a Four Swords + skin, I reckon. Yep.

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Tuesday, March 23, 2004

   Reconfiguration

You know, I realized yesterday that by making Version 7 of OtakuBoards a more "permanent" version, we are going to have to come up with some other way of identifying our updates. I thought of possibly doing a "7.1", "7.2", etc type of deal. But who knows. I say this because right now, there is a collection of small updates coming that will essentially push the boards into a "7.1" status. And when I say "small updates", I mean, "mega cool super funky updates." ^_^;; Ahem. Yeah. I guess it depends on the type of person you are. Some people will really like these updates. One of them relates to the addition of a very cool new interactive feature (which I don't want to talk about just yet -- I'd rather surprise you). The other relates to a redesign of the postbit at OtakuBoards. The postbit is basically the area above your posts, which contains your username/titles/avatar. Originally I'd only planned to add a new icon to that area, but I would like to reconfigure it a little bit more. It shouldn't be too tough on Justin, but hopefully it'll be a nice update that will make the site look a bit cleaner. I was also thinking further about my upcoming RPG. And I think I'm getting a bit closer to deciding how to choose people. I was considering an idea where I list the main characters and their biographies. Then, if you want to play as that character, you will have to write a very short background piece on 'em. So for example, you might write a couple of paragraphs about how they were freed from the Matrix. You know? Something simple, but something that demonstrates creativity. The thing is, I want people to know how to play as these characters. They will all be given a basic shell/history by me -- but it will be up to the individual roleplayer to make decisions about the specifics of their personality. Hopefully this will strike a balance between keeping control of the story and also allowing participants to have a sense of ownership and control over their character. Also -- I don't know if I've mentioned this -- but each chapter will have a theme song to it. It'll be an MP3 track that will stream in a seperate window (so you'll click something to make it come up). Tony is developing the code for that, which is great. I mention this for two reasons. One, because I do not want to encourage piracy. Although it's probably a bit of an annoyance to go and search for the streamed song on your hard disk, you never know. I guess I will have to trust those who sign-up or view it. But also, what I'd like to do is write a track listing index to encourage people to actually buy the music if they like it. I think this would be a novel approach in an RPG. Much of the music will come from the various Matrix soundtracks, but some will come from kinda-somewhat-related artists. I guess my goal is to ensure that each track fits in with what's happening at the time. I also realized something else about this. If I listen to a song with lyrics via headphones, I find that I focus on what person is singing...rather than focusing on the on-screen text. This raises a dilemma. If I choose a song that has lyrics in it -- and if people are using headphones -- it might distract 'em from the actual RPG. This led me to thinking that for each chapter, I should make a recommendation about whether you should use headphones or regular speakers. Headphones are great for the really atmospheric orchestral pieces, because you can let them go in the background and not focus your attention on them while you read. But for me at least, lyrics tend to divide my focus. Is anyone else like that? And do you think I should recommend alternative listening methods for each chapter? I don't want the addition of music to be a confusing aspect. Instead, I want music to compliment the writing -- not just as background music, but also as music that directly relates to what's going on. Anyway, it's something to think about. I'm not sure how much of it sounds confusing right now, but I think it will all make sense at the time. On another note, I think that my first term break is coming up relatively soon. Sometime next month. I told Justin that I'd use the time to push out another skin for OtakuBoards. Actually, I was already working on The Wind Waker skin. I spent a great deal of time focusing on the banner. But when I finished it, I didn't like it. It wasn't vibrant and colourful enough. So, I'm going to entirely scrap it and redo it. This sort of thing does slow everything else down. Once the major graphics are done, doing the icons and stuff isn't so bad; it's just very time consuming. And making them Zelda-themed is even more difficult. But I want to ask everyone, apart from the Zelda skin, what skin would you like to see? If I were to be completely selfish, I'd love to do a Jet Set Radio skin, or an Animatrix skin, or perhaps a Mario skin. It's hard to say. What do you think?

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Sunday, March 21, 2004

More Stuff

As most of you know, we underwent the upgrade to the final version of vB3 yesterday. As a result, some things have changed (ie: smileys). I'm not sure what the majority of OBers think, but I really don't like any of the new smileys at all. I'm going to have 'em changed back to what we previously had (thankfully I still have all of the grey OB smileys on my computer). I'm not sure exactly when this will happen; I want to ask everyone to be patient. The last couple of days of Jeh's life have been insanely weird and I'm not sure when anything will be done. In any case, if anything is broken, it won't be for long. Justin usually jumps on things pretty quickly and fixes problems. We're very lucky to have him around. There isn't much else to talk about really. I finished off my big project for school (though I have to re-mount it tomorrow), and I got a very good reception. It was printed in A3 size on glossy photographic paper...and it came out looking great. So I'm happy about that. ^_^;

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Monday, March 15, 2004

   Stuff

I'm about 80% through uploading and classifying all of the avatars that people have sent in. On the whole, I'm really impressed by the quality of avatars that I'm receiving. Most people are doing a fantastic job, with great stock image quality and strong editing. As a result, the number of avatar categories and the number of avatars within those categories is increasing steadily. It's cool that we've had enough new avatars in certain categories to put 'em up. It certainly creates more choice and variety for everyone. And again, I'm going to take this opportunity to praise the Adventure Arena. RPGs such as Dragon Wing Festival, Final Fantasy: When Worlds Collide, Final Fantasy Legends & Legacies: Crusaders of Crescence (what a mouthful!), Harry Potter: The Search for Truth, The Realm of Imagination, et al., are all demonstrating some pretty high quality. And there's more than that, even. Glitters Ain't Gold, Otakenot Tournament, Star Wars: Clone Wars...where does it end? I am pleased that this element of competitiveness (in terms of having higher quality RPGs) is seeping in and becoming part of the culture of Adventure Arena. The result is that if you're looking to join a new RPG, you will often have the opportunity to join something pretty worthwhile. And if you want to start a new one, you know that you have to continuously raise the bar in order to stand out from the crowd. It's great. I was talking to Tony about RPGs today, because he agreed to help me with my coding, which was nice of him. He also gave me some great advice about music streaming/downloading, which will come in handy. So that's great. Those were technical hurdles that were somewhat annoying at the beginning. Tony also mentioned that he is working on a new horror-themed RPG. This should be good, both because this genre has never really been explored in Adventure Arena and also because I know that Tony will be pretty thorough with it. He's already talked about making a map of the house and stuff, which should really add to the excitement surrounding it. I'm still working away on my RPG, although I do have the post layout design complete. It was annoying to make the "falling code" align at top and bottom, but still look continuous. But it seems to work okay. Now I have to get back to developing the plot and characters further -- and eventually, I have to focus on getting the chapter structure completed. I also have to work out some annoying little details, regarding how members are going to sign-up for it. Because of the way it works, it might be a bit tricky to have a regular sign-up system. So hopefully I can get my head around that. Even if you were not a fan of the second two Matrix films (shame on you!), I think you'll enjoy reading the RPG. It is, afterall, an original story. ~_^ Shy was also apparently working on something, but he isn't around a lot these days. So, I'm not sure what the status of that is. I also hope that these RPGs encourage non-RPers to try it out. It's really great to exercise the mind and creativity with things like this. Planning a new RPG can actually be really laborious, especially if you're aiming high. The fact that I'm trying to outdo my most recent effort (Kill Adam: Volume 1) also means that more time is going into the pre-development of the new story. On that note, Kill Adam's latest chapter is up. The first (and almost last) appearance of Switch. Should be interesting.

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Thursday, March 11, 2004

   Disruption

Well, I'm sitting here at 7:06am, having had very little sleep. I should be on the train headed to school now, but I'm not. I seem to be developing another throat infection, just like the one I had in December. It's one of the most annoying things I've ever had...I can't even turn my head without my neck being sore. So, I'm going to pay the doctor a visit soon. On a lighter note, Adam will be on the plane to Tokyo in a matter of hours. I had my daily chat with him a couple of hours ago, so that'll keep me going 'till he returns. ~_^ It's definitely going to be fun for him. I hope that he has some cool photographs to show me upon his return. Anyway, I guess that the last couple of days haven't been too bad. The marketing director at THQ Australia sent me an email, saying that he loves the new N-Sider design. So that was a nice compliment. I also discovered a very unique tertiary study course, which is being conducted at the Atari building in Melbourne...it's like a game-specific course. So that has me interested, for sure. There's also the possibility of me going on another date this weekend. Yes, another one. But hey, it's not too bad, it's my second date within the past month. I'm not the village bike just yet. ^_^;; I guess that's enough for me for this update. I added some minor imagery to this page, since I was getting annoyed with the flat colour; not that what I have now is much different. But I love the oil slick.

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